


Antumbra

by Haptronym



Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Anime), Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Drama, Friendship, Gen, Infuriatingly Obtuse Companions, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-27
Updated: 2016-06-28
Packaged: 2018-07-18 12:44:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,444
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7315672
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haptronym/pseuds/Haptronym
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post-Rise of Darkrai, Alice and Darkrai. Friendship is harder when you've chosen to befriend a monster.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _This tale begins a few weeks after the events in Pokémon: The Rise of Darkrai, and follows Alice and Darkrai through the difficult times that follow. Originally posted elsewhere, but I lost my password and I'm not allowed to resubmit the work under a new username on that site. I was meaning to rewrite some parts anyway so a fresh start works out well. I hope you enjoy this revised version._

_It was just a territory scuffle... except this scuffle was between two gods that could rip time and space like it was paper. They were so angry with each other, they didn't notice their battle was destroying our world. They would have wiped us out without even knowing what they were doing._

_But our town has a special guardian: a Pokémon named Darkrai. He lives in the shadows, always keeping watch over us. When he sensed we were in danger, he appeared to try and warn us, and when the two beasts appeared, he fought them and drew away their attacks to give us time. He wouldn't let them destroy us without a fight._

_Thanks to Darkrai, we were able to reach this tower and ring the bells. The song of Oración soothed Palkia and Dialga's rage long enough that they could look around and see the destruction they were causing._

"Our town was nearly destroyed by the time we were able to sound the bells. But when Palkia and Dialga realized what they had done, they used their powers to bring the whole town back, as good as new." Alice finished. The tourists sharing her balloon basket murmured in awe. They were on a tour, floating high above the city, flanked by clocktower spires as the breeze gently carried them above the town that had nearly ceased to exist a few short weeks ago.

"Whoaaa! That's so awesome!" The youngest kid in their small group piped up. He bounced on his seat. "Darkrai saved you!"

Alice smiled. "Yep! We're very grateful!"

"Are we gonna meet him?" His sibling chimed in. "I wanna see him!"

"Yeah!"

Alice frowned. "Well... he's... very busy." she said. "I don't think he can visit today."

"Awww..." The kids slumped in their seats, and Alice bit her lip.

She quickly continued the tour, pointing out the clock tower spires and describing their history while trying to forget the kids' excited voices. It was the first thing everyone asked, every time. _Where is Darkrai? I want to meet him! I want to say thank you._

She did too. But she hadn't seen even a flicker of blue among the shadows since the town's miraculous restoration. Was he truly all right, after being battered to the brink of death by those two legendary beasts? If he was, why hadn't he reappeared since then? Was he simply going to slip back into the metaphorical (and literal) shadows after all he'd done for them?

She gazed up at the towering spires. Had their sight of him standing tall on the clock tower that sunset even been real? 

 

* * *

 

Alice walked through the garden, watching the Pokémon at the waterfront laughing and splashing in the pond as she crossed the path towards the forest. A family of Marill and Azumarill arced through the water between the delicate pillars that held up a gazebo stretching across the pond, and a recently-evolved Quagsire she'd nicknamed Blooper splashed his tail and let out a friendly croak at her. She smiled and raised a hand in return as she walked past.

It was a warm, quiet afternoon, a rare day off in between her studies and the now-popular balloon tours. She'd become a sudden celebrity after the near-destruction of Alamos town. After the spectacle at the clock tower, it suddenly drew ten times more visitors and sightseers, all clamoring for an airborne tour of the massive building, all eager to listen to the tales of the young woman who had faced down two gods and lived. It was great for business, but incredibly exhausting.

Thankfully, the tourists still showed little interest in Godey's garden. A few minutes of walking and she could leave the bustle and the staring faces behind. Here, everyone acted just like they did before the disaster. Here, nobody asked her to talk about destruction, or made her anxiously wonder where Darkrai had gone.

She heard a familiar voice and a _ping_ of mental merriment from the walkway nearby. She looked up to see her friend Gallade perched in a tree. "Hi!" she said, and Gallade smiled and bounded down towards her. She took her friend's outstretched hand. "You look well today."

Gallade smiled and chattered back in his staccato language. Alice felt a mental prod. A hazy image of Chimchar swam to the front of her mind; she could tell Gallade was using his psychic powers to push it there. He cocked his head. _Where is Chimchar?_ he was asking.

"Chimchar?" Alice said, and Gallade nodded. "He's down at the baker's." She sighed. She wished he was here.

She sat down on one of the many ornately carved stone benches that dotted the courtyard. Gallade made a noise of curiosity and sat down next to her. He pushed another image into her head: her own face, downturned and wilted-looking. Then an emotion, concern. _Why are you sad?_

She smiled. "Do I really look that weepy?" Gallade just frowned. "I..." she began. "I was thinking about the disaster again." It was hard not to, when her main source of income involved talking about it over and over. "I was thinking about Darkrai."

Gallade tensed up. She knew he didn't like the nightmare Pokémon at all. But he stayed silent. "I used to say all the Pokémon in the forest were my friends, right?" she said. "But... I missed one. The one who ended up saving everyone."

She looked down at her feet. Darkrai had been so devoted, so fervent. Everyone called him evil, but he didn't care. He deflected the attacks that would have seared the flesh from their bones, drawing the legendary Pokémon to attack him instead of the town... and even when he had exhausted his strength and could barely get up, he still fought, throwing his body against the onslaught in a last-ditch effort to protect them.

No... to protect _her._ She could recall many times now, feeling eyes on her in the garden and not knowing who was there. He'd watched over her, hadn't he? For years and years and years. And she'd repaid him by not even knowing he existed.

"Gallade... I never even had the chance to thank him."

Gallade's forehead creased into a deep frown. After a moment, he put a hand on her shoulder and pushed a memory her way. An image blossomed into view in her mind's eye: a young version of herself, squealing with delight, up to her elbows in mud and pond slime as she played with a family of Marill at the edge of the water. (It was always so strange to see herself from Gallade's point of view.) She was younger in this memory, but not young enough to keep the whole spectacle from looking incredibly silly. Gallade sat in a tree nearby, observing. Her sopping-wet self waved to him excitedly, beckoning him down to play with them, but he shook his head and leaned back against the trunk of the tree. _No, I don't want to join you. I just want to keep watch. It's enough to see you happy and safe._

The memory faded, and Alice bit her lip and frowned. She guessed the message was supposed to be a metaphor. "So he _wants_ to stay out of sight?" she asked. "Why?" Gallade might have been happy as a detached observer for those few minutes, but how could anyone bear to be a detached observer for _years?_

Gallade shrugged, but his mental link betrayed a flicker of emotion. Distaste... resentment towards the nightmare Pokémon. Gallade _really_ did not like him. Speaking of that... "And Gallade, if he's lived here his entire life... if you _knew_ he was here... why did you never tell me about him?"

At that, Gallade shook his head and pushed a single emotion into her mind. _Danger._ Then immediately changed the subject, bringing up an image of the Shinx family that lived nearby. _They just passed through a little while ago. Do you want to play with them?_

Alice sighed. "Sure, let's say hi." she relented. Gallade seemed relieved and hopped up, then held out a hand to help her off the bench. She took his hand and obediently followed him as he chattered on, showing her memories of what the other Pokémon had been doing that day, as if trying to push their conversation out of her mind.

She went along with it, contentedly talking with him and not trying to bring him back to the Pokémon he so obviously feared. Because the instant she'd asked 'if he's lived here,' Gallade's mental link had betrayed another flicker. But this time, an image. It had been so fleeting, he probably thought she had missed it among all his other mental chatter.

An old, overgrown path, a tattered sign... dark forest broken by thin patches of sunlight. Gallade knew where Darkrai made his home, and now Alice did too. And she was going to find him.

 

* * *

 

It took her quite a while to locate the place from Gallade's memories. Godey's garden sprawled for kilometers and even she didn't have every area committed to memory. But 'overgrown' probably meant far from town, in the distant hidden pockets of the garden that even the groundskeepers didn't bother to tend to. Finally, she spotted the same ragged sign from Gallade's memory, standing forlornly next to a weather-beaten path that wound deep into the forest.

Nobody came this way, not anymore. In the past, this forest path could have been a meticulously groomed walkway, showcasing exotic plants on either side between the well-trimmed trees. But over the years, it was forgotten, and nature reclaimed it. Well, devoured it. The path was uneven, and weeds overran the barely-visible outlines of what had once been neatly-divided squares of garden soil on either side. Even in the bright afternoon light, the path was dim, steeped in darkness.

Alice had only rarely ventured down this particular path. None of the Pokémon she knew came here. She remembered, years ago, she had gotten an inexplicable urge to explore the area and had ventured inside once or twice, but had quickly given up. She hadn't been able to place what exactly bothered her about the forest, but there was an uneasy feel to the air that had made her skin crawl and sent her scurrying back outside, into the sunlight and warmth.

Apparently, this was where Darkrai made his home. In hindsight, it made perfect sense: this was the one place nobody would think to look. The entire area gave off a feel of utter desertion.

"Darkrai?" she called. She waited, straining to hear a reply, but no shadows stirred, no crystal-blue eyes flickered between the gaps in the branches.

Maybe he lived deeper inside. She set off down the forest path.

As she ventured in, the cheery ambient noises of the garden were muffled by the trees, as if the forest were swallowing up the lighthearted sounds. Branches arched overhead, and thin, frail threads of sunlight struggled to pierce the dense shadows.

Once again, she cried out Darkrai's name, and once again, there was no reply.

She kept going, dodging the clumps of weeds that sprawled across the path. She noticed that the usual background noises that should have been commonplace in the forest—the rustle of Pokémon foraging in the grass, birdsong from the trees—were eerily absent. It felt as if everything living had forsaken the area.

And then, she stopped, as if frozen to the spot. She jerked and her eyes widened slightly. Her breath caught in anticipation, and then...

...nothing. She frowned, straightening up. Wait... wait, why _had_ she stopped? Had she heard a noise? No, it was completely quiet. So what had made her pause? Why did she suddenly feel so nervous?

Skin still crawling for no real reason, she took a step forward--and in that split second an overwhelming wave of fear crashed over her.

Her eyes widened and she froze. Oh god, oh god, she had to get out, she had to get away. She heard a rustle next to her and she shrieked. Her hands were ice and she had to get away and oh god it was _right there_ and-

she stumbled backwards, and suddenly the terror vanished as quickly as it had arrived. She was on the ordinary, harmless path. There was nothing out to get her. She stared wide-eyed, trembling, gulping in breaths of air.

What the hell had _that_ been?

The sensation had come and gone so quickly, as if she had physically run into it. Wait... run into...

She stared at the spot she'd stepped onto. There was no visible difference between it and the rest of the path. She very hesitantly scooted her toe into the same spot. And once again, a sudden, stomach-twisting shock of fear knifed its way through her gut, as if someone had just snuck up behind her and shouted 'BOO!' It was less terrifying now that she was expecting it, but not by much. Every shifting shadow seemed ready to leap at her throat with fangs bared. She quickly backed up again.

Whatever it was, it wasn't visible to the naked eye. The path in front of her looked just as ragged and unkempt as everything else, but an invisible miasma of malice hung rank in the air just ahead of her as clearly as if the path were strewn with broken glass. Some kind of psychic manifestation? She knew that some Pokémon had the ability to cause confusion and terror in their enemies in battle. Was it something like that?

Then, dimly, she realized that she'd felt this sensation before. The bizarre, disconnected sensation of fear was the same threatening aura she had felt rolling off Darkrai in waves when he first appeared before her and the others, all those weeks ago. He'd been trying to use it to scare the legendary beasts away from the town, but they didn't realize it at the time. His mere presence had been so overwhelming. It was no wonder the trainers back then had attacked Darkrai as if their lives depended on it; Darkrai radiated an aura that caused instinctual, heart-stopping fear. It was only now, looking back, that she realized how artificial and out-of-proportion that sensation of fear actually seemed.

She glanced around, but she was alone in the forest. Either he was tormenting her from the shadows for no reason, or this was some kind of residual force, left behind to bar the way. Suddenly, she realized what it had to be.

"...It's a fence," she whispered in wonder. It made sense now. Almost every Pokémon had a territory. Darkrai had the power to cause fear and nightmares; maybe this was his way of marking his home. She had to admit it was the most ingenious security system she'd ever encountered. Barbed wire had nothing on an invisible force that could literally scare you senseless.

And it was working; she desperately wanted to turn around, run home, bury herself under her covers and never come back to this dark forest again. But she couldn't go now. This was a sure sign Darkrai was nearby. She called his name again, and waited. And... waited. She looked around. Nothing. What had she expected to find, a doorbell?

She sighed. He was probably somewhere inside. Maybe she should give up? But no. She couldn't take another day of telling people she didn't know what had happened to him. She had to go through.

Gritting her teeth, she steeled herself and stepped into the fog of menace. A pang of sudden fear shot through her, but she forced herself to ignore it. She had helped Darkrai, and he'd protected her. He wouldn't hurt her... right? This 'fence' was just a silly territory barrier... right?

She pushed onward, forcing herself to take deep, shuddering breaths. The air seemed heavy and thick, as if it were alive, trying to coil around her and crush the breath out of her lungs. A twig snapped under her foot with a crack like a shotgun and she jumped. No, she had to keep going.

She forged onwards despite every instinct in in her body screaming at her to run away. She could hardly breathe; she squeezed her eyes shut. Oh god, what if she was wrong? She wouldn't be able to get back out, she wouldn't be able to escape, she was going to die here, crushed under the weight of a living nightmare-

Then all at once, as if she'd popped through a forcefield, the oppressive weight vanished off her shoulders. She gasped and stumbled. The fear was gone. Ahead of her were trees and grass, perfectly ordinary. She glanced back. Even though it had seemed like an eternity, she'd only walked about five meters. There was nothing to indicate the heart-pounding gauntlet she'd just pushed through. Even now, she was starting to wonder what the big deal had been. She'd gotten so suddenly irrational... and she must have looked so silly too, cringing and jumping at nothing.

Still, she couldn't help but shudder. If this was Darkrai's idea of border security, it was no wonder Gallade was terrified of him.

She continued down the path, taking slow, steady breaths to try and soothe her jittery nerves. Now that she'd made it through the horrible 'fence,' the forest was actually very serene. Nothing stirred here. There were only shadows, and the occasional faint bar of sunlight seeping sluggishly between the branches.  
  
She quietly wondered if it was wise to be invading the territory of such a powerful Pokémon, especially one with such a hostile border around his home. She supposed she'd find out soon.

Finally, the already-precarious path deteriorated into scraggly clumps of grass. There was still no nightmare Pokémon to be seen. She opened her mouth. "Darkrai!" she called. She quickly shut her mouth again. Her voice sounded too loud in this subdued area, like a raucous kid in a graveyard. The forest was still and silent around her.

She tried again. "Darkrai, are you here?" No answer. She was starting to feel silly. He might not even be around. First she freaked out over a scary feeling on a garden path, and now she was shouting to the trees like a crazy person.

But then she heard a faint noise, like a breath of wind over the branches behind her, and she turned to see a faintly luminescent, piercing blue eye gazing at her from the shadowed base of a tree.

A smile broke over her face, and a rush of relief flowed through her body like cool water. It was him, just as she remembered. "Darkrai..." she said, "You're here..." The Pokémon materialized from the darkness as she approached him, putting one clawed hand on the tree bark and pushing himself up, the rest of his body seeming to flow from the shadows around him until he was fully visible, floating in midair like a wisp of smoke given form.

She stopped a few feet away from him. He hovered in place, regarding her with a cautious look. There was no wind in the air, but the smoky 'hair' on his head and the tatters of his black cloak still billowed behind him as if carried by an invisible breeze.

 **_Alice._ ** His voice—was it really a voice, or more of a thought?—reverberated around her, imposing despite its neutral tone.

"Yeah, it's me again." she said, and was suddenly at a loss of how to continue. She paused, but he didn't say anything further. He seemed to be waiting for her to do something. Which made sense, since she had been the one to seek him out. But her previous confidence had vanished and she was suddenly tripping all over her own tongue. Where had her composure gone?

"I..." she fumbled, "I wanted to make sure you were all right. I mean, you seemed all right after the town came back, but..." she trailed off, fidgeting with the hem of her skirt. How was she supposed to put it into words? _That sick feeling, as I saw your battered body lying motionless in the shallow water, too weak even to lift your head above the surface... as I fought down the urge to scream, "Why would you do this for us?"_

Darkrai raised his arms slightly and looked himself up and down, as if to say, _hmm... yes, all body parts accounted for._ Alice let out a choked laugh. "I'm... just glad you're okay." He was all right. He wasn't dead, or dying. The horrors she'd seen were just a memory now. She had no idea why she'd gotten so attached to the Pokémon after such a short time. Bonding through trauma, maybe. She just couldn't stop remembering the way her heart had shattered as she saw him 'die.'

Darkrai's one visible eye flicked back to her face. He began to lift a hesitant hand toward her, then seemed to think better of it and let it drop to his side.

And somehow, that simple gesture sent her already frayed nerves careening over the tipping point. "Why didn't you come back!" she burst out. Tears pricked her eyes. "I thought you were dead! I was so worried about you!" She'd be damned if he tried to claim that showing a glimpse of himself from halfway across town counted as 'coming back.'

He didn't reply. He just stared at her, a perplexed look on his face. "Don't give me that look!" she cried. "Friends are supposed to let each other know they're okay!"

Darkrai jerked back at her words. His surprise startled her into silence. What had he...

His voice echoed through the trees again. **_Friends?_ **

Her eyes widened. "I... oh." Then she mentally kicked herself. She didn't need to be apologetic for her words. "Yes. You've saved my life, several times." she said. "And you protected the town I love. Maybe I don't know you very well, but I consider you my friend."

Darkrai stared dazedly at her like a fish that had been tossed out of its pond. The smoky tatters of his 'robe' fluttered in an almost nervous way.

Well, no going back now. "What about you?" she asked, looking straight into his eyes. "Darkrai, will you be my friend?"

Darkrai didn't respond for a long time. Alice was beginning to wonder if his brain had melted when he slowly, hesitantly raised one taloned hand and held it out to her, palm forward. She understood the gesture. Touch, the universal symbol of trust that spanned across all species, Pokémon or human. He stared unblinkingly into her eyes with a solemn gaze that was so intense it made her want to turn her face away.

But she didn't. She leaned forward, not breaking her gaze, and pressed her palm against his. Her entire outstretched hand barely spanned his huge palm. His skin felt like silk stretched over cool stone, and she felt a dim sense of déjà-vu as her fingertips brushed the living shadow.

Darkrai closed his eyes, bowed his head. Alice smiled.

"Thank you, friend."


	2. Chapter 2

"Tonio! Toniooo!" Alice called. She hopped in an awkward dance between piles of papers, slowly picking her way through his cluttered lab. Her childhood friend was nowhere to be seen. Alice's Chimchar perched on a metal shelf near the entrance, idly scratching one oversized ear with a pawlike hand. Both of them knew from experience that it was too hard for Chimchar to navigate Tonio's messy workspace. Although his species were supposed to be precise and nimble little monkeys, he was a marked exception - he always managed to trip or stumble and set something on fire with his stubby tail.

"TONIO!" Alice yelled. She _knew_ he was here, because he'd left his keys in the door to the lab again. He was probably holed up in some side room, wearing headphones and staring glassy-eyed at one of his squiggly graphs. She'd barely been able to tear him away from the readings his machines had collected during Palkia and Dialga's battle, even with the promise of dates. He was so inept with people... but that in itself was kind of adorable.

A sudden _crash_ rang through the air and a cloud of dust billowed from a room just ahead. "Tonio?" Alice called. She sidled her way around a pile of folders and peeked through the entrance. "Toni- _oh my God!_ " She rushed to his side. Her friend—already disheveled-looking even at the best of times—was sprawled on the ground beneath a tall set of shelves, an overturned swivel chair next to him, and _oh God what was that bright red spatter everywhere—_

He looked up at her and his face brightened. "Oh, hi, Alice!" he said cheerily, and wiped a fleck of red off his glasses.

Her heart nearly stopped then and there. "Tonio, are you okay? What happened!" she reached forward to help him off the ground, but he raised his arm to stop her.

"Watch out... this juice really stains!" he said. He looked down at his red-soaked clothes and frowned. "This was a new shirt, too... I knew I should have gone with water."

Chimchar clumsily bounded through the door on all fours and gave a questioning chirp at Alice. Now that her eyes weren't bugging out of her head in horror, Alice started to piece together what had happened.

"Chimchar, it's all right... Tonio, were you trying to get a file off the top shelf?" she asked.

"I haven't needed those files in a long time, but these anomalies are so unique that—"

"On a swivel chair?" she cut him off.

"I—I didn't have a stepstool in the room, so—"

" _While juggling a glass of juice?_ "

"...I wasn't even thinking about the juice, honestly."

She sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Tonio had a brilliant mind, but you wouldn't know it by the way he acted.

She settled for punching him gently on the shoulder. "You're a dork, you know that?"

Tonio blushed. "Well, you know, I wasn't quite sure, but I'm glad you're here to set the record straight." She smiled. "Hey... do you smell something burning?"

They looked up at the doorway, just as Chimchar gave a cry of alarm and jumped away from the pile of folders he'd been standing too close to.

 

* * *

 

One fire extinguisher and a fresh set of clothes later, they were all sitting around the table in the main room of Tonio's lab. Chimchar quietly kept himself occupied on one of the few non-cluttered counters nearby, looking sheepish.

"—and so, when I combined the new wavelengths I isolated, I was able to match the output on the town's clock variations to the equations I'd been developing!"

"I'm glad!" Alice chirped, feeling the _whoosh_ as the concepts soared over her head. "So, did you get word back from your contact at Devon?"

"Yes! Damian and I been sharing files with one another since this morning. This new data is really a huge breakthrough for everyone." Tonio replied. He was positively beaming. 

To be honest, Alice usually couldn't make heads or tails out of the technical jargon that he spewed out. But she tried to understand what she could and show her support for his work in any way she knew how. She could tell her feeble efforts meant a lot to him; his eyes always lit up in delight whenever she brought up something he'd mentioned in his work. He'd told her many times how lonely he felt here. He had no colleagues living in the town, and most of the locals began to space out the second he started using words with more than three syllables in them. Plus, she felt she owed him at least a little effort considering the number of important lab documents her Pokémon had accidentally incinerated over the years.

"...you know, I don't think you visited just to hear about gravitational time dilation theory." Tonio finally remarked with a wry grin.

Alice put her hands up in mock surrender. "You got me." she said. "Though I _am_ glad to hear that Devon got back to you."

Tonio nodded, and she saw him drifting off once more into that half-distracted, swallowed-in-equation-land look that she knew so well. Whoops. "Yes, it is great... we've been discussing the impact that this will have on our temporal coordination systems, and..." he caught himself. "Anyway! What did you need?" he asked quickly.

Alice stifled a smile. "I was wondering if I could pick your brain regarding Darkrai." she said. "I don't know much about his species at all."

"Darkrai?" Tonio said. "You managed to find him?"

"Yes." Alice replied. "He's doing fine. He lives in a part of the garden that I never really visit, so it's no wonder I hadn't seen him before."

"Glad to hear he's all right." Tonio said. "That really was something, huh... hard to believe it was such a short time ago."

Alice nodded. Dialga and Palkia's visit was definitely something that would be talked about for years to come.

"Anyway, I don't know much about Darkrai, either; Pokémon studies aren't my field." Tonio admitted. "What did you want to know?"

"Well, what he eats might be a good place to start." Alice said. "I was visiting the market and saw berries on sale, and I thought, _I should bring some to Darkrai as a present._ He seems wary around me... I want to get him used to me. But then I wondered, _does he even eat food_? I haven't ever seen his mouth; his face is always hidden behind that big red collar. And he's so... ghostly..."

She trailed off. Tonio put his chin in his hand.

"Well," he said. "I can't give you a conclusive answer, but... I _have_ read about a ghost-type Pokémon named Gengar... it hides in shadows too, and it mainly consumes life force and dream energy. But! It also enjoys berries and other foods. I'd hypothesize that if a Pokémon like Gengar can eat, then Darkrai should be able to as well."

Alice frowned, mulling it over. Tonio shrugged. "Even if he doesn't like what you bring, I think he'd appreciate the gesture."

"True..." she said. "I might as well try. I've never met a Pokémon that doesn't eat. Even your Drifblim likes to steal my lunch when I'm not looking, and I _know_ that thing doesn't have any normal mouth to speak of."

Tonio laughed. "If he gets upset, just tell him Alberto suggested it."

She groaned at the mention of her overzealous admirer. "Good idea."

"I'll ask my associates if they have any information on Darkrai. I know Devon has several Pokémon researchers at their facilities." he offered.

"Oh, thank you, Tonio." Alice smiled. She leaned over and gave him a hug and a peck on the cheek. He promptly blushed a brilliant shade of red.

Ah, the shy ones were always the most endearing.

 

* * *

 

" _Chiiiiii..."_ Her Chimchar let out another thin whine and tugged insistently on her pants leg. Next to him, his friend, a Shinx, growled and murmured in anxiety. The three of them stood at the border of the deep forest. She had told Chimchar about Darkrai, and after a short period of surprise and wariness, he seemed eager to be introduced. Even though the nightmare Pokémon had scared the living daylights out of Chimchar when he'd first appeared, it was obvious that the fire monkey had quickly grown a deep admiration for the Pokémon that defended his master. He'd pantomimed the nightmare Pokémon's attacks for days afterwards, wafting smoke from his tiny tail flame back and forth to mimic Darkrai's shadowy flowing cloak and chittering excitedly at Alice like a little kid imitating his favorite superhero.

But now, at the edge of the deep forest, her fiery Pokémon was getting cold feet. He tugged at her clothes again and she looked down with a sigh.

"Chimchar, if you—"

"Chii!" Chimchar cut her off and pointed to the Shinx next to him—a little powder-blue lionlike Pokémon common in the garden, with radiant golden eyes and jet-black hindquarters that made his kind look like they'd collectively sat in a tub of ink. The young cub was Chimchar's best friend, and had met up with them when they entered the garden ten minutes ago. He seemed to have been telling ghost stories to Chimchar the entire time, because by the time they'd reached the entrance to the deep forest, Chimchar had gone from super-excited-best-trip-ever to this-is-a-horrible-idea-let's-go-home.

Shinx looked up to Alice with a piteous expression. His fur sparkled with nervous electricity. "Shii..." the Pokémon began to act out an impressive imaginary scenario, puffing out his tiny black mane dramatically and making wild gestures with his stubby paws. He seemed to be under the impression that Darkrai would devour them if they went into his territory. Alice was quickly realizing why she'd never heard a word about Darkrai before; all the garden Pokémon seemed to be so terrified of him that they got scared even bringing him up. Chimchar chirruped nervously, looking at his friend and then back at Alice as if he wasn't sure what to believe.

"Honey..." Alice knelt down to be more level with the little Pokémon. "Have you ever met Darkrai?"

Shinx shook his head and shivered.

"Well, I have." Shinx's reflective gold eyes widened. "Just a few days ago, in fact. He was very nice to me. He didn't try to eat me or anything."

Shinx frowned and let out a low noise. He didn't look convinced. Alice smiled and reached out to pat him on the head, then winced a second later at the static that snapped at her fingers. Ouch. She petted him anyway.

"Chimchar," she said, with an offhand air, "It's all right if you don't want to follow me. I understand if you're too scared."

At this accusation, Chimchar's mouth dropped open. He let out a soft screech of indignation at her preposterous claim. He puffed out his tail flame and bounded past her to the entrance of the forest, turning back to look at her with a look that said, _well, are you coming or not?_

Alice laughed. Next to her, Shinx called out to his friend in concern. But Chimchar wasn't about to back down to Alice's challenge now; he just chattered back in reassuring tones as Alice walked into the forest with him. 

Alice was touched at how much her Pokémon trusted her judgment, and not just when she goaded him over it. He always listened to her. Even when they were hundreds of meters in the sky in their rickety hot air balloon, buffeted by wild gusts of wind, he trusted her to bring them home safely. She would often see confusion on his face when she instructed him to raise or lower the balloon in seemingly illogical ways, but he never questioned her.

They heard Shinx cry out behind them as the forest swallowed them up, but Chimchar didn't look back.

 

* * *

 

By the time they reached their destination, Chimchar's bravado had evaporated. He clung to her arm with all four limbs, jumping at every snap of a twig. He gave a low growl of alarm as they approached the invisible fog of malice that marked the edge of Darkrai's territory.

She reached a hand up to stroke his short fur. "Shhh... it's all right." she whispered. She stopped a few meters from Darkrai's territory ward; now that she knew it was there, she realized she could sense it from quite a ways away. "Darkrai, are you here?" she asked. She really did not want to subject Chimchar to the 'fence'... she understood it was just a psychic trick that wouldn't harm them, but that didn't make it any less terrifying.

Luckily, though, the shadows ahead of them flickered in response to her voice, and the nightmare Pokémon materialized a few meters away. He must have expected her to come back. Alice smiled and opened her mouth to say hello, but before she could make a sound, Darkrai noticed Chimchar clinging to her arm and his eyes widened in alarm. Chimchar let out a screech of fear as Darkrai's cloak billowed out with a _whoosh_ , making him look twice as big and ten times as intimidating. He stared at the intruding Pokémon in a blatant challenge, and Alice felt Chimchar's fingers tighten around her arm. There was no mistaking the aggression in that taut stance, that volcanic glare.

Alice suddenly felt weak-kneed. She hadn't even thought of how Darkrai might react to another Pokémon. She didn't want to be caught on the receiving end if he decided to attack.

She shifted, subtly turning her body to make a flimsy barrier between Darkrai and her Pokémon. "Darkrai... t-this is Chimchar." She struggled to keep her voice calm and soothing. "He's my very best friend. Do you remember him? He helps me with my hot air balloon."

No response. Darkrai's claws flexed slowly. She stammered on, fighting down panic. "He... he's been really excited to meet you! He admires you a lot..."

Chimchar nodded furiously, taking her cue. "C-chii!" he squeaked. "Chim, chim chee." She could feel him shiver.

Darkrai held his fierce glare on her Pokémon, but Alice saw the tension in his frame lessen almost imperceptibly. Taking this as a positive sign, she forced herself to smile. "You don't have to worry. He doesn't want to hurt you." 

Darkrai stared at the two of them for a long, agonizing moment. The invisible gale that whipped his cloak into a terrifying frenzy slowly died down. Finally, her words seemed to get through. He relaxed his tense stance, but not before shooting her an accusing glare.

She let out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding, and suddenly felt like sinking to the ground.

"Darkrai... I'm really sorry..." she said. "I didn't know you'd be upset..."

Darkrai's cold gaze flicked back to her, and then, in a harsh motion that belied more than a little irritation, he whipped around and vanished into the shadows. Alice's heart sank. Oh no. Was he leaving?

But no, there he was again, reappearing a little deeper in the forest. He looked at her impassively and made a beckoning gesture. She glanced hesitantly at the area where she knew the 'fence' lay, afraid to subject herself—or her friend—to that heart-squeezing fear again. 

Darkrai's telepathic voice echoed around her, as if he were standing right beside her. **_It is gone._** he said.

Really? She gingerly put her toe forward, but there was no jolt of fear in response. He'd taken down the ward for them. "Thank you!" Alice cried, and quickly hurried to follow him. Chimchar chirred in confusion and she patted him on the head to reassure him. She'd explain it to him later. 

Darkrai led her and Chimchar off the remains of the path, through a tangle of brush and undergrowth (was he deliberately choosing the most hard-to-navigate way, just to be petty?) But finally, the cramped, gnarled trees gave way to a small, green clearing. Alice stepped out with a sense of reverence. Soft sunlight lit up the green grass, and small flowers bloomed in white-and-blue patches. A tiny brook burbled contentedly at the far end. Darkrai floated in the center of the clearing, giving her an unreadable look.

"Oh..." Alice looked around at the tiny sanctuary, her breath taken away. "It's beautiful..." She could tell this was more than just another clearing. The trees and grass looked carefully tended, and she spied a well-worn hollow in the base of a nearby tree, lined with soft grass and leaves.

The forest was Darkrai's territory. But this serene area was his home. She felt humbled at his display of trust in her, to let her—and her Pokémon—into this private place.

Chimchar hopped off her arm, into the grass. Darkrai twitched and sent a baleful look at the flame adorning the Pokémon's stubby tail. The unspoken warning was obvious: _you burn my clearing, you pay._ Chimchar, following the nightmare Pokémon's gaze, squeaked and quickly dropped to all fours, making sure his rump was high in the air. Darkrai let out a huffy sigh. Good enough, it seemed.

They stood like that for a few moments, the uncomfortable silence stretching on, until she felt a tug at her bag. "Chii." Chimchar looked up at her, paw on the latch.

"Oh!" she remembered now. "I brought something for us to eat." She fumbled in her bag and pulled out the crumpled paper package from the market. "Do you like berries?"

Darkrai tilted his head and stared at the package intently. "I wasn't sure what you like to eat—" _I'm not even sure if you eat at all,_ "—so I got an assortment of them. I hope you like them."

Darkrai didn't move to take the package. Alice suddenly felt nervous again. _Is he offended? Was I wrong to—_ her thoughts were interrupted as Chimchar clambered onto her shoulder. He reached into the bag and pulled out a Sitrus berry, then, in a display of bravery, looked Darkrai straight in the eye and offered the food to him with a friendly chitter.

The Pokémon gazed at Chimchar, then at the berry, then slowly, carefully, as if making sure not to startle either of them, reached out and took it from Chimchar's hand. He looked it over thoroughly, turning it over in his taloned hands, then, brought it up over his red collar. It vanished into the shadows near his face, and a moment later she heard crunching noises.

She let out a short laugh, despite herself. Darkrai's gaze whipped back to her and he looked alarmed. "No, it's all right," she said, giggling. "It's just, I've never seen your mouth. I was worried that you might not even have one."

At this, Darkrai gave her a withering look. As if to dispel any remaining doubt, he reached forward and took another berry, chewing extra loudly this time. Alice giggled. The anxiety that had permeated the air ever since the confrontation with Chimchar finally started to ease.

Darkrai seemed to be calming down in their presence as well. He slowly sank towards the ground, his wispy cloak fluttering around him until his body was nestled snugly in a seat of smoky darkness against the grass. Alice sat down and put the package of berries between them, and Chimchar hopped down next to her (being very careful to keep his rear end a safe distance from any foliage).

Chimchar tentatively struck up a conversation, Darkrai replied back in a rumbling voice, and soon both Pokémon were speaking in relaxed, if slightly hesitant tones to each other as the three of them slowly worked through the bag of berries. Chimchar even got up the courage to move from his position next to Alice to a spot about halfway between her and the black Pokémon.

She looked up at the two Pokémon. Darkrai sat about a meter away from her, watching Chimchar intently as the much smaller Pokémon demonstrated how to pry the tough shell off a Figy berry. She smiled. Seeing him like this, Darkrai really wasn't scary at all. To be honest, he was almost entrancing to watch. That deep black body with the shock of white hair, always gently billowing like a thin plume of smoke... and his eyes. Those impossibly vivid, ice-blue eyes, so out of place among his dim markings of red and black. His eyes always seemed to take hold of her whenever they rested on her, looking at her and only her as if she was the only thing in the world worth seeing. It was a frighteningly intense sensation.

They ended up staying until dusk. Alice played her leaf whistle for them, and the two Pokémon lapsed into contented silence and listened to the peaceful tones for a long time. Darkrai even let Chimchar off with a mere bloodcurdling glare when the fire Pokémon sat down in a moment of inattention and accidentally scorched a patch of grass.

As the light faded, Darkrai led them back through the forest and cleared his ward from the weathered path once again. Alice couldn't keep the happy smile off her face. "Thank you for spending time with us," she said to Darkrai. She held out her hand, and he rested his fingers on it. "I really enjoyed it."

She was about to leave, but something had been niggling at the back of her mind for a while now. "Darkrai," she asked, "Why are the other Pokémon so frightened of you?" Plenty of Pokémon were territorial and would attack intruders—the Luxray pack had nearly taken her arm off once when she foolishly wandered onto their turf, even though she fed and played with them every day. And she knew that the Ralts families that inhabited the garden could psychically manipulate emotions to evoke irrational fear just like Darkrai did. But none of them were regarded with the stark terror that she'd seen on the faces of every Pokémon that heard Darkrai's name. It made no sense.

Darkrai's blue eyes narrowed at her question. He looked into a spot far off in the distance, as if trying to figure out how to word his response. When he finally fixed his eyes back on her and spoke, his reply sent a shiver down her spine.

**_I hurt people._ **

And before she could compose herself enough to ask him what he meant, he melted into the shadows and was gone, leaving her and Chimchar alone on the ragged path.

He hadn't said that phrase in a past tense, _there was a time when I hurt someone_ kind of way _._ He had spoken it in the same way someone would comment on a simple law of nature. _Trees grow, rain falls... I hurt people._

Clutching Chimchar close against the sudden chill that seemed to fill the air, Alice headed towards home.


	3. Chapter 3

The weeks passed, and Alice and Chimchar continued to visit Darkrai's overgrown little corner of the garden when they could. They'd invited him out several times, offering to show him around town, but every time he declined. He seemed content to stay in his small territory, though he now appeared almost instantly as soon as they stepped near his ward. 

Today, though, she was spending time with her other friends. Alice sat on the lip of the small artificial river running down the stone walkway of Godey's garden. In the water around her, an impressive swarm of Finneon and Lumineon clustered close to the surface. She would have liked to think they were just glad to see her, but everyone involved knew the real reason for their excitement: the leftovers of a sandwich in her hand. She smiled and tore off small bits of bread for the Pokémon to chase.

"Chiii..." Chimchar leapt up next to her and sat down with a heavy sigh. That was surprising. He'd run off earlier to find Shinx. She hadn't expected him to be back so soon.

"Watch out, the Finneon are splashing." Alice warned him. He didn't move. "What's wrong? Were you not able to find Shinx?"

Chimchar made a dejected noise and motioned to the end of the walkway. A powder-blue muzzle and two golden eyes peered out at them from behind a bush. Ah, there he was. But Shinx made no move to join his friend. What was wrong...? Alice was about to get up to see if Shinx was all right, when the bush rustled and a Luxio that Alice recognized as Shinx's mother emerged onto the walkway. The Pokémon noticed Alice and Chimchar and looked them over with a wary, distrustful eye. Then, she picked up her son by the nape of his neck and hurried back into the brush.

Well, that had been odd. Alice and Chimchar were usually on good terms with Shinx's mother. "Huh." Alice said, perplexed. "Did he have some place to be?" Chimchar shook his head. Something else, then. Alice wondered what it could be. The only time Shinx's mother had been really angry with them was after that one time Chimchar helped Shinx climb a huge tree without realizing that the cub Pokémon couldn't get down easily like he could. Shinx had been stuck in the tree for an hour before Gallade arrived and rescued him. But that had been a long time ago.

In her inattention, she had set the sandwich down on the lip of the river. With a mighty splash, a Lumineon leapt halfway out of the water and latched onto the food. Alice yelped as water splashed onto her lap, and Chimchar leapt away from the offending liquid. The Lumineon dragged the food back into the river, where the swarm descended on it like a pack of vegetarian Carvanha.

"Oh, great..." Alice stood up and examined her dripping clothes. "You guys sure are patient, aren't you?" she called at the Pokémon in the river. The only replies were a few splashes on the surface of the water as they chased down stray fragments of bread. Chimchar chuckled. "Hey!" she looked down at her Pokémon. "Don't tell me you think this is funny! I'm all wet!"

Chimchar pointed at her and chittered something in an amused tone. "What's that?" Alice cupped her hand to her ear. "You want a bath in the river?" Chimchar froze mid-laugh. "Did I hear a yes? ...Well, if you insist!"

Chimchar took off like a rocket, and Alice laughed and gave chase, forgetting the strange behavior they'd just seen.

 

* * *

 

Alice didn't want to stay in the garden for too long—she'd promised her mother that she'd come over for dinner that evening—but she and Chimchar still hurried down the garden path to the deep forest to pay a quick visit to Darkrai. 

They rounded the bend that led to the place where Darkrai's 'fence' stood, and Alice's eyes widened. Several trees in front of the ward were marred by blackened gouges and gashes. She slowed to a stop, and Chimchar let out a low, nervous noise.

"What happened...?" Alice murmured. The marks looked vicious... and somehow familiar. Before she could put her finger on where she'd seen them before, Darkrai materialized a few meters away with a small _whoosh._

**_Alice._** he said in greeting.

"Hi, Darkrai." Alice said. "What happened to—oh god!" Darkrai was floating as nonchalantly as usual, but his jet-black forearms were crisscrossed with long, shallow cuts, as if he'd raised them to block a clawed attacker. "Darkrai! What happened to your arms?" she cried. Whatever had gotten the trees had apparently gotten him too. Her stomach turned just looking at the open gashes, half-burned at the edges.

Darkrai lifted one arm, glancing at the wounds as if Alice had informed him he had a speck of dust on him. **_I fought._** he said matter-of-factly.

"What do you mean, 'you fought?' You need to go to the Pokemon Center!" she cried. Some of those gashes ran all the way from elbow to wrist. Chimchar winced and rubbed his own arms with a shiver.

Darkrai merely fixed her with a quizzical look, then turned as he usually did and began to float off towards his clearing.

"Hey! Wait!" Alice called. He stopped. "I'm serious!"

He glanced back at her. **_I can't go there._** he said, as if that was that.

"You'll get an infection!" she insisted. He tilted his head. "You'll... get sick."

Darkrai's eyes narrowed. **_You think I will be brought down by scratches?_**

Alice groaned. "I'm not trying to say you're weak! I... just don't want you to be in pain." No response. "Pokemon Centers are nice places,"  she wheedled. "Everyone brings their scary Pokemon in to get healed. You'd fit right in! And they'd be able to fix you up." 

Her words were met with a deadpan stare. She became acutely aware that she was using the tone one would take with a small child. "Just—come with me." she finally said, trying to put as much authority into her voice as possible.

He gazed at her with the most impassive expression known to mankind. **_...Or?_**

"Or... or..." she spluttered. She sighed in frustration. There was no way she could compel him to do anything at all, and he knew it. Coercing him by force was out of the question - Chimchar wasn't a fighter, and even if he was, Darkrai was far more powerful than even a trainer's Pokemon.

Darkrai turned (did he _roll his eyes_ at her in the process!?) and flickered away into the shadows. **_You know where I live._** His voice echoed behind him.

Alice scowled, and set off towards his clearing. 

 

* * *

 

She and Chimchar decided to stay for the afternoon until it was time for dinner. Darkrai at least allowed her to use some of the spray medicine she kept in her purse on his wounds. Alice had her flute with her and some sheet music to practice, and Darkrai and Chimchar had claimed the berry package for themselves and were sitting nearby—it seemed like bringing a package of berries for lunch had become a kind of ritual between the three of them. Darkrai rested quietly against a tree trunk, mostly silent, as Chimchar (as far as she could tell) recounted tales from hot air balloon trips, acting out his and Alice's adventures in excited detail.

Chimchar, in a particularly frenzied bout of charades, tripped over his own feet and fell flat on his face. Darkrai looked over the embarrassed Pokémon and caught Alice's eye. His expression was so contentedly deadpan that she had to put down her flute in a fit of laughter. Chimchar let out a mortified wail at her— _how dare you laugh at my pain!_ —and quickly composed himself in a huff.

Chimchar reached out to take the last berry from the package, just as Darkrai moved to do the same. Their fingers collided and the two Pokémon froze. Alice paused with her flute halfway to her lips. The two Pokémon stared at each other for a moment. She could tell neither of them really cared about the Pecha berry enough to KO each other over the right to devour it. Then a mischievous light flashed in Chimchar's eyes, and he leapt back, dropping into a crouch and flaring his tail flame with a friendly grin. Alice recognized the playful stance. She saw it all the time when Chimchar was bored and wanted to let off energy, or as a signal that he was going to try and sneakily steal her lunch. Chimchar chattered a quick challenge to the larger Pokémon with a grin.

Darkrai, however, didn't seem to grasp the lightheartedness behind the action. He rose up and back, eyeing the Pokémon that had seemed peaceful just a moment ago, then flared out his cloak in an obviously aggressive gesture. Chimchar's eyes widened in surprise and he dropped into a submissive position. He chattered at Darkrai in a confused voice, and Darkrai relaxed, looking just as perplexed as Chimchar. They exchanged a few more words, then Darkrai looked over at Alice.

**_What does he want,_** the dark Pokémon asked her. Alice set down her flute and looked at Chimchar, and the fire monkey shrugged in confused exasperation. He had seemed pretty obvious in his intentions.

"Well... it seemed like he wanted to play-fight over that berry." Alice said, cautiously. Chimchar nodded. "He sometimes gets that way with me. We usually end up just chasing each other all over the place."

Darkrai tilted his head. **_He wants to battle?_**

"No, no!" Alice held her hands up. " _Play-_ battle. Usually his idea of 'battling' over food is more like a game of keep-away."

Darkrai still seemed utterly lost. "You do know what keep-away is, right...?" Alice asked. Darkrai looked slightly offended at her tone.

**_Yes._** he said, his tone more blunt than usual. Alice shrugged.

"He's just silly like that." Chimchar gave an affronted chitter. "Hey, don't try to deny it."

Darkrai, however, still looked deep in thought.

**_Why._** he finally asked.

"Why... does he like to play-fight?" Alice clarified. Darkrai nodded. "...because it's fun?"

Darkrai sighed and sank back against the tree, closing his eyes. He seemed suddenly tired.

**_Fighting is not fun._ **

Alice wasn't sure how to respond to that. She seemed to have struck a nerve. Chimchar shifted from foot to foot restlessly. He nudged the wrapper with the Pecha berry next to Darkrai, then scampered over to Alice's side. However, the nightmare Pokémon seemed uninterested in the food.

Alice played her flute to fill the silence, but her mind wasn't on the music. Even the trainers she knew, who put their Pokémon through seemingly brutal battles on a regular basis, told her that their Pokémon still loved to spar and play with one another in their spare time. She looked at the long, thin cuts on Darkrai's arms. What kind of life must he have led to feel threatened by a game of keep-away? She vaguely wondered if Darkrai had grown up with any siblings to roughhouse with. From the look of it, she doubted it. In fact, considering how terrified everyone in the garden acted toward him, he probably had never had any close friends at all.

Well, maybe they could do something to remedy that. She only hoped the solitary Pokémon would continue to open his heart to them.


	4. Chapter 4

It was a few days later, and Alice hurried through the garden on her lunch break. Chimchar had opted to stay at the baker's—he liked to help them out when they got large orders—so she came alone this time. She saw a few garden Pokémon in the distance, but for the most part there seemed to be nobody around. That was unusual... most of the time, she practically had to fight her way through the throng of eager Pokémon who came to greet her (and beg for lunch scraps). But it was probably for the best; she didn't have much time. She just wanted to quickly say hello to Darkrai and check up on how he was doing.

She rounded the corner in the deep forest path and stopped in front of the now-familiar ward that marked the edge of Darkrai's territory. She called his name, but he didn't appear. Darkrai often chose this part of the day to tend to the small stream that wound its way through his clearing, and would get so wrapped up in his work that she'd managed to accidentally startle him a few times. She would just have to grit her teeth and head through the 'fence' herself.

She scrunched up her face and stepped forward, and immediately the ward responded, sending a pang of fear through her. But now, she realized, she could perceive what it was doing. In the beginning, she'd responded to the sensation of fear on instinct, unable to distinguish the invading emotions from her own, not even knowing that there _was_ a distinction. Now, though, she could start to feel where Darkrai's suggestive powers ended and her own feelings began. It was subtle, so subtle that if she hadn't grown up around Gallade, she probably wouldn't be able to notice the difference. Gallade's species talked to each other through emotional and mental projection, and she'd learned how to communicate with Gallade by recognizing that the 'random thoughts' that popped into her head when he was around weren't actually random. She'd never had Gallade attempt to cripple her with fear, so she'd been very unprepared for the bludgeoning mental attack of Darkrai's ward. But now, it gave her a little peace to recognize and understand the sensations as the foreign, irrational spectres that they were.

She popped out from the other side of the 'fence' and took a deep breath. Sure, she was starting to understand it, but the ward was still incredibly distressing. 

She shivered and set off to the left, and after a few minutes of picking through the forest (she was actually starting to wear a small trail into the underbrush) she could see dapples of sunlight ahead. She emerged into the clearing, brushing away a branch as she stepped into the open space. Across the small meadow, she spied a smudge of white-on-black next to the brook. But Darkrai wasn't busily combing debris out of the streambed or picking up dead leaves; he lay on the bank, his cloak fluttering weakly in the breeze.

"Darkrai?" she called as she hurried across the clearing. He lay half-in and half-out of the stream, forearms submerged in the gentle current. "Darkrai!" she cried again, and he finally cracked open one eye. He looked dazed; it took a moment before he focused his half-lidded gaze on her face. 

She knelt down next to him. "Darkrai, what's wrong..." She reached out and touched his arm near one of the long cuts, and he hissed and jerked the limb away from her fingers. Even under the cold water, the skin felt hot and inflamed. "Oh no..."

 ** _Do you..._** He seemed to have trouble finding the words. **_Do you have your medicine._** He glanced at her handbag.

She shook her head. "That won't work." she said. The spray medicine was just a mild pain reliever. "Darkrai, you need to go to a Pokémon Center."

He didn't reply, just let his eyes slide shut again. "Darkrai," she repeated. "Can you get up? I'll take you there. They know how to fix these things." He didn't respond. "Darkrai!" She pushed his shoulder, and he growled and scrunched up his face.

 ** _Stop._** he rumbled.

"Please," she insisted. "I know you just want to rest. But when a wound gets hot and swollen like this, it won't get better on its own." She was no trainer, but she'd seen Pokémon become permanently crippled or die from infected wounds like this. 

Darkrai made a vague shooing motion in her direction. **_I can't._**

"I'll go with you. I promise, I won't let anything happen to you."

**_I can't! I hurt people._ **

There was a desperation in his tone that was more than simple obstinance. Alice frowned. "I'll make sure you won't hurt anyone, okay?" It wasn't as if he had any strength to attack. 

He stared at her, frustration in his eyes - and more than a little fear - holding her gaze with a startling intensity despite his obvious exhaustion. A searching look, uncertain... questioning? She quietly looked back, unsure of what was going through his head. Seeing such obvious fear from his normally-stoic self was making _her_ afraid.

"I'm not being overprotective. You could die." she finally said. "Please, trust me. I care about you. I want to help you."

He paused for another long moment. The air hung thick and heavy - a feverish, anxious aura radiating off the wounded Pokémon that made her feel sick to her stomach. Finally, he dropped his gaze. **_I do trust you._** he said. **_I…_** he trailed off. He didn't seem to have the words. 

Finally, he reached one hand forward, towards her. He touched the grass near her foot, and then he was vanishing, melting away into smoke as if the ground were swallowing him up.

She stood up, confused. Darkrai was nowhere to be seen, but she could feel his presence. Around her, the outline of her shadow flickered and wavered like a weak candle flame. She took a step back and felt a strange sensation, as if the air was slightly thicker and took more effort to move through. Her shadow followed her, but sluggishly, in an oddly delayed movement. Her eyes widened. Amazing. He was literally resting in her shadow.

Alice breathed out a thanks to the Pokémon, and set off at a quick pace.

 

* * *

 

She hurried to the Pokémon center as quickly as she could. She saw a group of Pidgey on the way out of the garden, but they'd taken one look at the unnatural shadow trailing behind her and scattered, screeching in alarm. The lobby of the Pokémon Center was relatively empty when she rushed inside. Nurse Joy looked up as Alice leaned against the counter to catch her breath. Not only had she jogged from the garden, but the effort of 'carrying' Darkrai's shadow form made her feel like she was trying to run through jelly the entire way there.

"Alice, is something the matte—" Nurse Joy's eyes widened as Darkrai rose slowly from the ground next to Alice. The normally cheery and composed nurse took a step back, and the Chansey behind her made a noise of alarm. "Oh my..."

"Hi, Nurse Joy. This is Darkrai. He's hurt," Alice explained between gulps of breath. "His arms..."

"Alice, that is a very dangerous Pokémon!" Nurse Joy cried. "Why did you bring it _here_? I have to ask you to escort it out; it's a danger to the patients..."

 _What?_ That was ridiculous. It was obvious that Darkrai could barely keep himself upright. The trip seemed to have taken a lot out of him, though he still tried his best to hold his head high and look dignified. He couldn't be dangerous right now if he tried.

"He won't hurt anyone," Alice said. "He needs your help, badly."

Nurse Joy considered the nightmare Pokémon. Darkrai met her sharp gaze with a tired resignation. Finally, the nurse stepped forward, her mouth set in a thin line.

"All right." she said in a curt voice. "I... suppose there's nothing to be done, if he's already here. But he cannot stay for extended recovery. I'm sorry."

Alice would take what she could get. "That's fine." Nurse joy motioned to her Chansey, and the pink Pokémon hesitantly approached Darkrai to lead him into the back. Nurse Joy didn't meet Alice's eyes as Chansey ushered two of them through a door. Alice gave Darkrai a perplexed shrug behind the nurse's back. _I have no idea what the problem is._ Darkrai merely looked back at her with a terribly concerned look. 

Alice sat on a folding chair in the corner of the examination room as an assistant came in and nervously began taking vital signs. Darkrai was utterly silent, even when the assistant prodded his tender injuries. He kept glancing over at Alice, as if trying to read cues off her. She smiled at him with the most genuine look she could to try and calm him down.

 _Why_ did everyone seem to regard Darkrai as evil incarnate? There were so many more menacing-looking Pokémon out there. Even Nurse Joy, the last person she would have thought would stereotype, seemed cold and hostile towards him. So what if he had an attack that could cause nightmares? Many other Pokémon had the same ability. And at least he didn't seem interested in using his powers to torment others, unlike some Ghost-type Pokémon she'd read about. It was ridiculous.

A Chansey came at Darkrai with a needle, and his eyes widened. He soared off the examining table and hovered near the ceiling, far away from the pointy object. "It's okay!" Alice called to him. "That's how they give you medicine. It won't—okay, it will hurt, but only a little." 

Darkrai looked at her as if she'd just told him they were planning to saw his arms off, but floated back to the examining table, regardless. Whatever had been in the shot must have been some kind of sedative, because his sharp eyes quickly grew dull and unfocused and he sank onto the table, not even twitching when the Chansey touched him.

It didn't take long to clean and dress the wounds, and before they knew it, they were being ushered back out into the waiting room. Darkrai was now in a near-stupor. In the lobby, he bobbed unsteadily in the air. He gazed at the white bandages on his arms, and raised a hand to try and touch them—only to entirely miss the arm he was aiming for. He groped at empty air for a few moments before a confused expression dawned on his face. He then proceeded to stare dully at his hands as if he had no idea how they had appeared on the ends of his wrists. Alice would have found the spectacle hilarious if he hadn't looked so genuinely distressed.

Nurse Joy reappeared from a side room, holding a small package and talking in hushed tones to several assistants. She glanced over at Alice and Darkrai and quickly excused herself, walking over to the two. "This has an antibiotic treatment and extra wrappings." Joy explained in a clipped tone, handing the package to Alice. "You'll need to change the coverings once a day and give him one tablet every morning and evening until the entire bottle is gone. Try to keep him from battling or exerting himself." 

She still looked upset, angry even. Alice frowned. "Nurse Joy, what is the-"

"Why did you bring him _here?_ " She snapped. Then looked mortified at her own outburst. "Why didn't you call and have us come out to him instead?" she continued in a voice that was quieter, but no less frustrated.

"I... didn't realize it would cause a problem," Alice replied, somewhat in shock. It was the truth; she had no idea why Nurse Joy was reacting this way. This was the same woman who would happily welcome Muk and Gastly into her practice without missing a beat. "He was so sick, I had to do something..."

"Just... next time, please call. We can do remote visits." Nurse Joy sighed. Alice nodded meekly.

"Thank you for everything, Nurse Joy." Alice replied with a deep bow.

"You're welcome..." she said, "But I am going to have to ask you to leave now."

Alice nodded and turned to Darkrai, who was gazing off at some undefined point near the ceiling. She took his hands to try and draw his attention. "Darkrai?" she asked. "Can you turn into a shadow again? Like you did before?" Darkrai didn't seem to comprehend her words. He stared at her fingers as if they were the most fascinating things he'd ever seen.

Alice looked over her shoulder at Nurse Joy. _Is this normal?_ She mouthed.

"The sedatives have a stronger effect on Pokémon that have never had medication before..." Joy replied back quietly. "It should wear off in a few hours."

Alice finally managed to coax the drugged Pokémon into her shadow once more, and she headed back out into the sunshine, feeling like she was dragging a lead weight behind her.

 

* * *

 

Alice stayed with Darkrai in his clearing until he fell asleep (she'd never seen him asleep before; it was disconcerting to see him so vulnerable) and then reluctantly left the forest as the sun began to sink below the horizon. She began walking back towards the direction of her apartment, then reconsidered and turned towards Tonio's lab instead. She loved Chimchar, but she needed some human company right now. A lot had happened.

The lights were still on when she arrived, and Tonio's door was open with the keys left in the lock yet again. She peered in. "Tonio?" she called. No reply, as was expected. She edged her way around a chair piled waist-high with stacks of folders. "Tonio!" she repeated. "Chimchar is just itching to burn up some lab results!" Silence. Shucks. 

It took her some hunting, but she finally peeked in a dim side room to see him drooped over asleep in front of a computer screen, head resting on his arm and glasses shoved awkwardly askew. Aww, passed out on the job. She crept up.

"Hey!" she whispered. He didn't stir. Wow, he must have been _really_ engrossed in his work to exhaust himself this deeply. She smiled and gave him a poke. "Wake up, sleepyhead!"

At the slight jab, his already precarious balance on the chair shifted and his arm slid off the desk, sending his whole body teetering sideways. Alice's eyes widened. "Hey!" She lunged to grab him as he fell out of his chair and they both crashed into an awkward heap on the floor. "You dork!" she laughed. "You're a klutz even when you're aslee—"

Her words died in her throat. His eyes were still closed. 

She shook his shoulder as he lay limp on the floor. "Tonio?" He didn't respond.

"Tonio? This isn't funny... _Tonio!_ "


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _The lore in this chapter draws from an anime episode, "Sleepless In Pre-Battle", as well as Darkrai's official Pokedex entries._

Alice sat numb at Tonio's bedside in the infirmary. In her hands she clutched a manila folder. It had been sitting on Tonio's desk, with her name and a little heart scribbled on it. He had kept his promise to find more research for her. Its contents had been summarized to her by Nurse Joy... and the EMTs... and several angry family members...

_General Observations and Behavior Ethogram - Canalave City Darkrai_

Across from her, her childhood friend lay unresponsive. Every now and then, his face twitched in a grimace, or he let out a soft noise of distress. But he wouldn't—couldn't—wake.

_In addition to its sleep-inducing attacks, this Pokémon also possesses an involuntary passive ability with a roughly 500-meter radius. Darkrai's passive ability causes severe parasomnia among anyone asleep within its influence. Depending on the proximity, it can also trigger prolonged coma-like symptoms, seemingly preventing sleeping individuals from waking for several days._

Five people. Two humans and three Pokémon—all bedridden just like Tonio, all trapped in nightmares and unable to escape. Two of those Pokémon had been trying to recover in the Pokémon center, sleeping off their injuries, when she'd brought Darkrai there. One of them had been in critical condition at the time, and the stress of the nightmares was making it weaker and weaker with every hour that passed. Its trainer had made sure to let her know.

How long until they broke free? Nobody knew. It could be days, or weeks. The Canalave research even reported that one individual had spent _years_ in a coma after encountering a Darkrai.

_Acute external stimuli, such as electrical shocks, have occasionally been successful in waking afflicted victims, but otherwise, no treatment has been shown effective in reversing the effects. There is ongoing research into the abilities of the Pokémon Cresselia..._

_I hurt people,_ he'd said. So this is what he meant. A passive ability... one that couldn't be 'turned off' at will. Everywhere he went, he spread pain, whether he wanted to or not. She'd had no idea. She'd known he could cause nightmares by attacking... but not simply by existing.

It all fit together. The isolation: that 'bubble' of eerily uninhabited forest around Darkrai's home was roughly half a kilometer wide. The abject fear: after all, if Darkrai could afflict nightmares on sleeping people by mere proximity, it was no wonder they didn't want him wandering around. His refusal to leave the forest except under the direst circumstances. Nurse Joy's anger and dismay...

She could overhear angry tones echoing from down the hall. _First it attacked all those Pokémon during the disaster... now it's going after random victims!_

_I don't want that thing near my home. What if my kids never wake up one morning?_

_I had no idea one of them lived here. We need to do something about it..._

At least the sound of her leaf whistle seemed to give Tonio some peace from his fevered dreams. Alice took a deep breath and began to play. It was the only thing she could do now.

 

* * *

 

The trees seemed to close down on Alice as she walked down the forgotten path in Darkrai's forest. One of the humans and two Pokémon had woken up that morning—though the specters in one Pokémon's dreams had frightened it so badly that it seemed in a constant state of panic, and refused to battle any Pokémon with blue eyes. 

Tonio remained unconscious, trapped in his own mind. She'd left Chimchar to stay with him just in case he woke up while she was gone. She needed to deliver Nurse Joy's medicine to Darkrai, and ask him if, maybe, he had a technique that could undo the effects of his ability...

She turned the bend that brought her to the edge of Darkrai's territory. The scarred trees on either side stood as forlornly as ever. Why did those marks crisscrossing the bark look so familiar? She stepped forward, brushing the invisible barrier—

And then a rush of swirling black filled her vision and a force slammed her backwards. She tried to gasp as she crashed up against a nearby tree, but she couldn't find the air. Terror wrapped around her heart and she would have sunk shaking to the ground if it weren't for the hand pinning her against the rough bark. The stars in her vision slowly cleared, and her eyes focused on the huge, icy blue one staring down at her from inches away. Darkrai. But not the quiet, restrained Pokémon she knew; his eyes were flat, glinting, smoldering with anger. Hostility rolled off him in waves. And it was all aimed, like a thousand daggers, straight at her.

Her voice shook, cracked. "D-Darkrai, what—?" She tried to reach a hand out to him. _It's me, Alice, your friend—_ But his other arm shot out, snatched her limb by the wrist and pressed it back, against the tree. She'd seen the power in the claws wrapped around her arm and pressing against her neck and chest. She knew it was only by restraint that he wasn't snapping her bones as effortlessly as one would crunch twigs underfoot. And by the look in his eyes, it was a very thin restraint indeed.

 ** _What happened._** He growled. She glanced at the scuffed white bandages wrapped around his arms.

"Yesterday? I... I took you to the Pokémon Center." she said. It was hard to keep her voice steady. He was so murderously _angry..._ why was he so angry? Was he going to hurt her? God, he could do anything he wanted, here in this deserted forest. She was acutely aware of how utterly alone they were, how completely helpless she was to defend herself in any way.

 ** _I hurt people yesterday._** He rumbled. **_Why did I hurt people? What happened?_**

A shock of realization shot through her. That was what he was so angry about? "Y-you were dying!" she cried. "I had no idea bringing you there would hurt anyone. Why didn't you tell me?"

At that, he released her and drew back. She slid to the ground in a wide-eyed heap. **_Why didn't I..._** He glared down at her. _Please don't hurt me_. She thought. But he didn't move towards her, just stared with such a virulent expression of contempt that she wanted to sink into the bark. **_You said, "Trust me."_** His telepathy projected a wavering, distorted mimicry of her own voice, her cajoling tone.

She remembered the abject fear on his face when she'd said those words. He had been afraid of causing nightmares? "I'm sorry, I didn't realize it meant so much to you..." she said. She knew he was solitary, but she hadn't realized how seriously he took his passive ability. "I guess I didn't... I mean, during the disaster, you had no problem causing nightmares left and right."

His eyes glinted. **_Because they chose it._** he said, as if explaining basic concepts to a grade-schooler. **_They attacked first._**

Okay, that did make sense. There was a difference between retaliating when attacked and randomly tormenting innocent bystanders. And he'd had a very good reason to leave his forest during the disaster—trying to save the entire town from destruction and all.

"I... I'm sorry." she murmured.

**_That is not good enough._ **

"I just wanted to help!" she cried. He didn't answer, just stared with those piercing, judging eyes, and she knew how easy it would have been to call a doctor to the forest, or to ensure nobody in the center was asleep. But she hadn't done that, had she. She'd been careless... now five innocent people, including her closest friend, were suffering in the hospital, and even more people resented Darkrai because of it. Alice wrapped her arms around herself. She wished he would look away.

 ** _Why do you come here?_** He asked suddenly. **_Am I a new checkmark on your list of friends? A novelty?_**

Is that why he thought she came... "No!" she answered. "No, I wouldn'—"

**_Then why._ **

"I..." she was suddenly speechless. Why _had_ she sought out the elusive nightmare Pokémon, after ensuring he was all right? She'd been curious. More than a little in awe. And surprised that he'd managed to live in solitude, all these years, right under her nose. 

_"I'm friends with every Pokémon in the garden,"_ she'd often said with pride. Except for one, one she'd missed. And that had rankled her.

Had she really kept coming back so she could mark him off as another friend gained, like some kind of conquest? Was she that shallow?

 ** _I enjoyed your visits._** Darkrai said. **_Very much._** For a split second, Alice felt, through the waves of hostility, a glimpse of years and years of solitude, of watching from the shadows as others made friends, fell in love, raised children, explored the world. Dull resignation to an empty life. But then, change... could it be? Someone— _her!_ —had sought him out, by choice. An electric anticipation, a near-euphoric rush every time he heard footsteps at the edge of his forest. A painful, jagged hope, yanked to the surface by this kind human and her small clumsy partner, that maybe, just maybe, he could reach out to another. Despite who he was, despite what he was. 

**_But I cannot afford to play your game of friendship._ **

Tears pricked her eyes. Partly from the accusation that she'd do something as petty as treating friendship like a game to be won, and partly because she wasn't sure if he was wrong. "I... I never thought it was a game. I never thought you were a game." she whispered. "I'm sorry..."

It was starting to hit her, the weight of her mistake. Weeks ago, when those first small anomalies had appeared in the town, people leapt to blame Darkrai without a second thought and ganged up on him in a mob. The Pokémon in the garden obviously feared and despised him despite his solitary nature—the bandages on his arms were a testament to that. His ability to stay in the garden at all was a delicate tightwire act, one that could become unbalanced at the slightest disturbance. 

She knew how much this place meant to him. It was the only home he'd ever had. She had asked for his trust and he'd given it to her, despite the risks. And now, thanks to her careless actions, the townspeople were talking of 'doing something about' him. No wonder he felt furious and betrayed.

Darkrai regarded her with a distant gaze. She knew she should just leave. Any further words on her part might set him off, provoke an attack; she didn't know what he would do. She'd never really understood him at all, and he'd never really understood her. But her mouth was moving despite herself. 

"Darkrai, I, I... I never wanted to hurt you. I never wanted to hurt anyone. I just wanted to know you... I..." She desperately wanted to reach out, grasp his hands, make everything better... but that coiled stance, those angrily whipping tatters of cloak, told her that those gestures would most definitely not be welcome.

 ** _You want to know me? Then. Learn._** He leaned down—she flinched at the outstretched claws without even meaning to—but he was just grabbing her bag, which had fallen on the side of the road. He tossed it in her direction. **_Do not visit here again unless you understand—truly understand—what you are doing. And tell your friends to stop attacking me._**

And then, as suddenly as he'd appeared, he was gone. All that remained was the heavy, suffocating miasma of anger and bitter sadness that settled over her like a fog and threatened to choke the air out of her. She sat tense, frozen for what seemed like an hour, as if the slightest twitch would bring those hell-black claws wrapping around her throat. Then a choked half-sob escaped her, and she curled up on herself. 

Considering his enormous strength, he had barely touched her. She had a few scrapes from the tree bark and a bump on the back of her head. It was the words that had ripped deeper than any physical attack.

God... she'd blown it. She'd blown everything. What had she been thinking? He'd been right. She'd been treating his company as a fun game, not even considering the risks that came with it. Not even realizing there _were_ risks. And she'd never known... how highly he'd viewed her, the trust it must have taken to allow her into his fragile world. 

She looked up, and finally remembered where she had seen that pattern of blackened, crisscrossing gashes that raked across the tree trunks.

" _It's an attack called, uh... X-Scissor, I think." Tonio told her as they watched Gallade leap and dance across the courtyard, the blades on his arms pulsing with pale blue energy. Gallade shot forward and slammed his arms against the hapless tree that he'd chosen as his opponent. The shuddering blades crisscrossed deep into the hard wood with a thud that reverberated throughout the courtyard. Alice shivered at the intense power behind the attack. "It's a useful move for Psychic-types," Tonio explained. "Not only is it effective against other Psychic Pokémon, but against Dark-types - who usually have an advantage over Psychic Pokémon like Gallade - it's absolutely devastating."_

Alice recalled the concern in Gallade's eyes, his gentle tugs on her arm whenever he saw her venturing towards the forest, the anger and fear that rolled off him whenever she said Darkrai's name. He'd always been so concerned for her safety. He must have attacked Darkrai out of a misguided sense of protectiveness. She couldn't think of any other reason he would actively seek out the nightmare Pokémon.

So, not only was the incident at the Pokémon Center her fault, but so were the injuries that made Darkrai so ill in the first place. Just her visits had, indirectly, caused him harm.

It was a long time before she could gather herself together and, trembling, venture back out of the darkness, into the sunlight of the garden.


End file.
